Thursday, July 21, 2016

Hell of a Week

I dislike the phrase team player. I am not a team player; indeed, I am not a
player of any kind. Don’t know how to
play. I don’t need a team and haven’t a problem
being alone. Owing to my lifelong
Paganism and my adult lifelong Socialism, I am often alone. I am not a leader
or a follower and will not be conscripted into either. Any attempt to do so will only piss me
off. I am not a nice person when I am
pissed off.

Having said all of this, I have spent the last four days
watching the Republican Convention – watching people systematically, angrily
and even aggressively brow beating one another into supporting a narcissistic
sociopath, pathological liar and dangerously reckless man for the Presidency of
the United States of America. It is patently insane. I keep looking down the
block for Rod Serling, cigarette in hand, sardonically greeting me in the Twilight
Zone.

Underlying all of this forced conformity in the home of
the free and the land of the brave is the misguided idea that bloated, self
satisfied, condescending, money grubbing political parties can and must control
the conscience of a people. This concept
is working in tandem with the idiotic notion that thoughtful adults, bright
children, even loving pets should look to double dealing, treacherous politicians
for moral authority. It is the worst
kind of group think, of mob mentality driven by the greatest of lies and
delusions – that somehow men and women who spend their lives peddling influence
and promoting their own self interest have reached a moral high ground unseen
by ordinary mortals.

Their rallying cry is Clinton is corrupt. The whole goddamned system is corrupt as the
advocates of corporate subsidies and Citizens United like McConnell, Ryan,
Christie and Giulliani well know. Hell,
corruption is our avatar; greed our greatest cardinal virtue; power for power’s
sake the prayer of the mighty and the scourge of the down trodden. In this soulless wasteland of our own making
the Right insists in the name of God, county, guns, home schooling, the Rapture,
football and mom’s apple pie that Donald J. Trump, conman-carnival barker-misogynist-racist-xenophobe-often
failed businessman, is our new found savior.

I can’t tell anyone how to vote. I can only say without hesitation,
qualification or reservation that from what I have seen this week there is a malignant
movement afoot in this country. There is
a thread of Fascism and authoritarianism running through the fabric of our
Republic. Both have been on full display
this week in Cleveland and must be stopped.
It can only be done at the polls.
So, in the vernacular of sports – second only to Christ in our reverence
and respect – chose your team and place your bets, but be prepared to take
responsibility for the game you instigate.